North Korea savaged at UN for human rights abuses

North Korea came under stinging criticism at the UN Security Council on Thursday for the second consecutive year for the unparalleled horrors of human rights violations that deny millions basic freedoms.

The meeting, which fell deliberately on international human rights day, was chaired by the United States, which had joined eight other members in calling for the talks on Pyongyang's dismal rights record.

Permanent members China and Russia opposed the meeting saying the council was not the appropriate forum, and denying that the human rights situation in North Korea posed a threat to international peace and security.

An attempt by China to prevent the talks was voted down, despite support from Angola, Russia and Venezuela.

US Ambassador Samantha Power tore strips off China and Russia's position, saying that arguments "heard today will not go down well in history."

The abuses are a "nightmare" and represent "a level of horror unrivaled in the world," said the US ambassador.

Quoting from a report by the UN secretary general, she said tens of thousands of prisoners had for generations been gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labor, executions and infanticide.

"The list is long, the abuses vast and the anguish profound," she said. A third of children under five, and almost half of those aged between 12 and 23 months are anemic, she added.

She shared the horrors endured by two people who escaped the regime and who stood up in the chamber, as she narrated the loss of their relatives, the starvation, imprisonment and torture they endured.

"We must continue to take steps that one day will help us to hold accountable the individuals responsible for the horrors like those experienced by our guests today," she said.

UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said Pyongyang must be referred to the International Criminal Court over the "scale and extreme gravity" of its human rights violations.